‘Zonqor selection shows MEPA subservient to Castille's wishes’- PN

The Nationalist Party has warned that MEPA’s chief executive Johann Buttigieg is “subservient to the wishes of Castille”.

Earlier this week, MEPA’s site selection exercise for a private university in the south of Malta came under scrutiny of the parliamentary committee on environment and planning.

The site selection exercise deemed Zonqor Point to be the most suitable site to construct the university, leading to outrage by the Opposition and environmental and human rights NGOs. 

“MEPA should act as a regulator, deciding whether sites recommended by a developer are viable or not,” Opposition MP Ryan Callus told a press conference. "This time, it chose the site itself, donning a developer’s cap at Castille’s request.”

He pointed out Castille had asked Buttigieg to keep the report confidential, that the report wasn’t signed or stamped with the MEPA logo, and that MEPA’s own Environment Directorate wasn't even involved in the site selection.”

He also questioned why Buttigieg, as CEO of an independent authority, had attended negotiations between Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Sadeen Group, the contractors expected to construct a private university.

"Also, while the report's introduction suggests that MEPA had been asked to locate a site on the south, its conclusion said that Zonqor was the best available site in the south-east," Callus said. "This is contradictory and raises questions as to whether the site was pre-selected.

At the outset of the committee meeting, Buttigieg said that MEPA had received a brief from the government to select a site in the south-east, that was over 50,000 square metres, owned by the government. He said that the Government Property Division suggested Ta’ Barkat, where a sewage treatment plant is sited; Fort St Leonard, and Zonqor Point.

Following public outcry, the OPM directed MEPA to widen its search from the southeast of Malta to the whole of the south.

‘Government must publish Heads of Agreement with Sadeen’

Shadow environment minister Marthese Portelli reiterated the part’s call on the government to instantly publish the Heads of Agreement it had signed with Sadeen on 5 May.

"Why is the government ignoring the public outcry at this project?" Portelli questioned. "What is it trying to hide? What is it about this agreement that it doesn’t want published?"

"The agreement includes important details, such as the length of the temporary emphyteusis that will be granted to Sadeen,” Portelli said, while pointing out that Sadeen’s own lawyer has said that the government doesn’t want these details published.

‘Rug has been pulled from under education sector’s feet’

Shadow education minister Therese Comodini Cachia heavily criticised a controversial legal notice that has lowered standards required for educational institutions to get legally recognized as universities, warning that it has "pulled the rug from under the education sectors feet".

"No one has the right to throw away all the investment that has been pumped into the education sector over the years," she said, while urging the National Commission for Further and Higher Education to assess Sadeen's application seriously and independently.

She said that this legal notice allows educational institutions to offer only one out of training, research and outreach, rather than all three of them. He warned that institutions that are incapable of offering the required programmes will still be able to get green-lighted as universities if the government deems it to be “in the national interest”.

She had harsh words for NCFHE chairman Martin Scicluna for having called a press conference to defend the legal notice.

"No commissioner of an independent authority should step in to defend political work," she said.